Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Ratatouille!

After I watched that cute Disney Pixar Ratatouille movie about the cute little chef rat, I promised myself I'd try the film's namesake dish very soon. And then I forgot all about that promise, until I ran across the recipe for Ratatouille with White Beans in TheVegan Table:

I love anything with white beans and with all the lovely produce in season, it seemed like a great time to whip up this veg-heavy entree. I'm reviewing The Vegan Table for the Memphis Flyer, the newspaper I write for, so I need to try as many dishes from it as possible before the review is due.

This dish — loaded with eggplant, zucchini, red bell pepper, tomato, and fresh herbs — satisfied my craving for veggies. I love the idea of a main course made with such a variety of fresh produce. And of course the white beans really stepped it up a notch.

I did have to add a crap ton of salt though. Colleen Patrick-Goudreau's recipe only calls for salt to taste at the end of cooking, but next time, I'm adding it in earlier. I also halved this recipe because it was meant to feed 6 to 8 people. The Vegan Table is an entertaining cookbook, so many of the recipes make huge amounts. I'll definitely be turning to this volume for potlucks!

I served my ratatouille with a slice of fresh Whole Wheat French Bread with Vegetarian Herb Pate:

I made this loaf last weekend using Sarah Kramer's Easy French Bread recipe in La Dolce Vegan. And the pate is AMAZING! It's by Bonavita and it's imported from Germany. I found it on sale when World Market was going out of business and now I'm wishing I would have bought all they had on the shelf. I'm gonna have to find a way to order this stuff from somewhere! It has a cheezy, nooch-heavy taste that I love!

17 comments:

Ok, I must admit, that doesn't look anything like the Ratatouille we make here, but it looks DAMN GOOD! I really want to get Vegan Table - I love Colleen Patrick-Goudreau & like listening to her podcasts when I run. And TJOVB is one of my very favourite baking books ever!

Your Ratatouille makes me hungry- it's something I've never eaten before!! And I absolutely loved that movie.. hehe. I have yet to check that book out- but I think I'm going to give it a look-see in the near future. Keep up the awesome food making- your food always looks amazing!

That ratatouille looks delicious! I especially like the olives & beans. I think I've had one too many bland restaurant ratatouilles, because I associate them with being kind of boring in my head, but yours looks great.